True home theater
There are many ways to achieve a true home theater feel in your living room. On the one hand, you could install full-length red-velvet curtains in front of your entertainment center and leave a sticky, crunchy mess of spilled soda and popcorn on your living room floor. Or you could install the Sony BRAVIA VPLBW5 home theater projector. With the VPLBW5 installed at the rear of your living room — whether on a stand or mounted to the ceiling — your favorite films or TV shows are projected onto the super-thin, unobtrusive screen (not included) at the front, just like at the movies! Further, thanks to a variety of projection technologies, you enjoy a bright, detailed, high-definition 720p-resolution video image. (Note, to enjoy the VPLBW5's HD 720p capability, you'll need high definition 720i/p or 1080i/p-resolution video source material.) Okay, we'd understand if you still wanted to install the plush curtains.
LCD times three
Hey, sometimes, more really is better. Delivering detailed, colorful, lifelike video, the Sony BRAVIA VPLBW5 sports 3LCD display technology. An image reproduction system featuring 3LCD splits the light coming from the projector's light source into three beams, one color each — red, blue, and green — and then passes each beam through its own LCD chip. Each chip is controlled by the projector's computer, opening and closing its more than 2 million liquid crystal pixels and allowing only a specified portion of the colored light through. Finally, the three color images are combined by a prism and magnified by the VPLBW5's lens and projected onto your screen. The use of three LCD-matrix chips allows for optimal control over the reproduction of images and color, delivering a high-resolution picture with deep, accurate colors. With 3LCD, more is better.
Light and dark
A front projector's ability to produce light and dark is essential to its performance. First, a projector needs to deliver lots of light so as to be able to display a clear and bright picture on the screen at the other end of your living room. Second, to be able to achieve sharp, lifelike detail, a projector must have the ability to display deep black levels (usually expressed as a contrast ratio). While its 2,000-lumen-producing capability lets you enjoy a well-illuminated, bright picture even on larger screens or in rooms with higher levels of ambient light, the Sony VPLBW5's 700:1 contrast ratio offers deep blacks for enhanced detail in all your favorite movies.
Smoothing out installation
Because front-projection HDTVs are installed at the rear of your viewing area — i.e. away from the screen and the rest of your home-theater components — distance can become a challenge to achieving a true home-theater feel while maintaining video quality. Why? Well, for starters, because the image-projection unit is separate from the screen, finding an installation location that is perfectly in-line with your screen can be difficult. Reducing the effect of off-center installations, the Sony VPLBW5 features adjustable lens shift and auto keystone correction. These advancements allow the video image to be aligned with the screen even after the projector has been fixed in its place. Next, because the VPLBW5 is on the other side of the room from your other A/V components, you most likely will have to run a video cable the entire distance between your satellite box, receiver, or DVD player to get a video signal to the projector. Because there is a greater opportunity for interference and distortion to develop in a video signal the further it travels along a cable from the source to the projector, the VPLBW5 features built-in video-noise reduction, reducing the effect of video interference on the picture you ultimately see.
A word on connectivity
In the world of today's modern home theater system, connectivity equals integration. The more versatile the connectivity options offered by any given A/V component, the more seamlessly that component can be integrated into your home theater. Not only does the Sony VPLBW5 offer one HDMI connection (more on this below), but it also sports composite-video and S-video input for optimal connectivity to non-HD digital and analog video sources. Further, a PC video input combines with an RS-232C input, making it easy to enjoy video from your computer on this BRAVIA front projector.
HDMIncredible
Bringing you the absolute best in connectivity, Sony's VPLBW5 features one HDMI connection. HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is the only interface in consumer electronics that can carry both uncompressed high-definition (HD) video and uncompressed multi-channel audio in all HD formats including 720p, 1080i and even 1080p. Your incoming media content comes in a variety of sizes, resolutions and formats, and with that in mind, HDMI systems automatically configure to display that content in the most effective format. Since HDMI carries all channels on video and audio, there is only one cable to plug into any HDMI-enabled source and display device. No more complicated cable set-up when installing your home theater system, and no more ugly cable mess behind your components. HDMI supports standard, enhanced, or high-definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on this single cable. Also, HDMI is fully backward-compatible with DVI. (Please note that a physical adapter, sold separately, is needed to make the conversion from HDMI to DVI.)
Avoid the 'No Wire' ire
The advent of HDMI has been monumental in the advancement of all your favorite audio and video gadgets. Don't miss out on all that your new VPLBW5 offers — in terms of high-definition audio and video connectivity — by leaving a set of HDMI cables off the list. Vann's sales representatives are here to explain all your options, so you can make the best purchase and get the most out of your HD system. Call the 800 number at the top of this page for expert advice.
Included with purchase
The following items are included with the purchase of the Sony VPLBW5: one Remote Commander RM-PJAW10, two size AA batteries, one HD D-sub 15-pin component input cable, Operating Instructions, one lens cap, one AC power cord, warranty card.
